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Happiness is a Choice

Today I am starting my day with positive thoughts. I have realized this is a major source of my stress. I normally wake up and start worrying about the tasks to be done today or the problems I am carrying.

Instead of giving them to God first, I try and to solve them as if I have the power to do so. Then the negative thoughts take over and I start “gerbiling.” I think I made up that word along with others that are not in the dictionary like “hinky.” What I mean is that I start twirling like a gerbil in a cage, putting out lots of energy but going nowhere but in circles.

When I worry like this I am not trusting God first. This is spiritual attack. One of the gifts that God has given me is the ability to multi-task. But worry is taking multi-tasking to a whole new level. Satan knows one way to tempt me is in my mind. I let him in and the mind games begin. It is pride that makes me think I can solve these problems. God hates pride. Satan uses pride as a way of getting to me.

It is my gift of being able to problem solve that made me a good Emergency Room nurse back in the days. I would always go to the worst-case scenario, rule it out, and then go to the next possible problem. I was a part of saving lots of lives doing this. This gift served me well as an ER nurse.

But it does not serve me well in my daily walk. I can get way far ahead of myself and think about the worst problem conjuring it up before it could even happen. Then the stress takes over my waking and sleeping.

A friend of mine, who has more problems than s person ought to, said to me “I choose happiness.” Wow, if she can so can I.

So each morning, when I wake up, I thank God and I say, “Today I choose happiness”. I proceed to write or talk about 5 things that I am grateful for from the day before.

It does work. Try it. Repeat after me, “I choose happiness. I am grateful for . . .” Now you list 5. Bet you come up with more than 5!

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The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors and participants on this web site do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Motherless Daughters Ministry, Inc., or official policies of the Motherless Daughters Ministry, Inc.